The secret life of handmade art dolls

April 15, 2011

Doll Swans

Several of you guessed right away that I was referring to the movie Black Swan in my last post as that which has inspired my latest dolls. When it was listed as an Academy Award Nominee, it was given the category 'ballet psychodrama' - how could it not be great? It's quite absurd and over the top in some ways, but if you surrender to the melodrama, it's thoroughly awesome. I didn't like Aranofsky's filmmaking style when dealing with heroin addiction in Requiem for a Dream - a dark, heavy subject matter treated in such a heavy-handed, melodramatic way - it felt too self-serious and relentlessly punishing. But that style coupled with ballet as the subject matter - somehow the contrast was really appealing.

The ballerina dolls are coming along slowly. I don't know if I'll have them done by the end of April as I'd hoped - my little monkey has had a few very rough nights sleep-wise, so I've been forcing myself to go to bed early rather than work on dolls so that I'm not a complete wreck. But I've really enjoyed spending more time on the faces, and I've made real pointe shoes for each doll. I use silk for the slipper and sole and silk embroidery ribbon for the ties.

They literally take about 10-15 times longer to make than a painted shoe, but I think it's worth it. For ballerinas, aren't shoes half the point? (Oh, bad pun! NOT intended.) I'm sorry for the quality of the photos - I didn't have time to get my macro lens out, but I'll be sure to get some better shots once the dolls are finished.